Photo Courtesy of DA Katz
Search warrants yielded an inventory of drugs and guns.
By Forum Staff
Four men, including a father and son, have been indicted for allegedly packaging and selling an assortment of narcotics—including heroin, cocaine and fentanyl—to walk-up customers in an open-air drug market on a dead-end Jamaica street on multiple occasions between May 2021 and June 2022, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Monday.
A fifth defendant has been charged with possessing kilos of narcotics worth more than $75,000, Katz added.
The District Attorney’s Office identified four of the defendants as Boris Ford, 57, of Roosevelt Island,
Manhattan; and his son Barshawn Ford, 29, Esau Daniels, 28, and Leon Spears, 60, all of Jamaica. The defendants have variously been charged with conspiracy, criminal sale of a controlled substance, and criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Boris Ford and Leon Spears face additional charges stemming from items recovered during search warrants this week. At that time, members of the City Police Department executed authorized search warrants on multiple locations, including the residences of Boris Ford and Leon Spears. The search warrants yielded four illegal firearms (including a MAC-11 submachine gun), more than five kilograms of heroin and cocaine, and cash. Boris Ford was charged in a five-count criminal court complaint with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree, operating as a major trafficker and criminal possession of a weapon. Leon Spears was charged in a seven-count criminal court complaint with, among other charges, criminal possession of a weapon, and criminal possession of a controlled substance.
An additional search warrant resulted in charges for the fifth defendant, Lonnie Scott, 50, who is alleged to have supplied Boris Ford with narcotics. This search warrant, executed at Scott’s Jamaica residence, yielded more than five kilograms of cocaine and heroin.
Utilizing complex court-authorized electronic surveillance warrants, surveillance, and other investigative tools, the Queens District Attorney’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau, working with the NYPD’s Queens South Violent Crime Squad, conducted a 13-month investigation dubbed “Operation: Overpass.” In October 2021, the court authorized electronic surveillance of a mobile telephone used by Boris Ford. Detectives assigned to the Queens South Violent Crime Squad, including undercovers, determined that the elder Ford had enlisted his son Barshawn Ford and at least three other men in an alleged scheme to sell narcotics in a Jamaica neighborhood near 157th Street and 109th Avenue. The men allegedly ran an open market, controlling a dead-end street where customers could walk up and purchase illicit narcotics on demand. In utilizing the eavesdropping warrant, the detectives learned that Lonnie Scott was allegedly one of Boris Ford’s suppliers of narcotics.
According to the charges, from May 2021 to June 2022, Boris Ford, his son Barshawn Ford, Esau Daniels and Leon Spears conspired to sell an inventory of drugs including heroin, cocaine and fentanyl on at least 23 occasions.
DA Katz said, as alleged, the elder Ford would obtain narcotics from various suppliers, including Scott, that he then repackaged for resale with his son, Barshawn Ford, and Esau Daniels. Barshawn Ford and
Daniels provided the narcotics to several street dealers, including Leon Spears, and brought the cash proceeds back to Boris Ford. Defendants Boris Ford, Barshawn Ford, Daniels and Spears allegedly communicated information about their drug inventory and sales through scores of phone calls and text messages intercepted during the course of the investigation.
